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Never Had the Brother of Jesus 04132026
Black Gold 04062026
A man found a piece of black gold in his yard. He showed it to others who had never seen anything like it. They wanted what he’d found. Fearing they might take it by force, he sold it to them, using the money to dig for more. The more he found, the more people’s addictive appetites wanted more. Stories spread of a “B. G. Disease” but the town crier said it was just a sick joke.
The man and the system prospered. Some in the village were envious that one man had all that treasure in his yard — why him? They sought to get even by taking what they deserved, but they heeded the wisdom of a voice that said, “don’t steal what you covet.”
One night, the notorious teenage “Out of Control Gang” broke into the man’s house. His fear of being robbed was happening. The man locked himself in his vault with his treasure. The gang couldn’t gain access to their desires. In a rage, they killed his family. He stayed. Frustrated, they ridiculed his belief in “finders keepers”. He stayed. The “Out of Control Gang” controlled his necessities for life. The man controlled the black gold.
The man was willing to die for his belief and the OCG was willing to kill for entitled pride. Neither got to enjoy the black gold. The OCG gang who had never learned one lesson from consequences, learned to live without black gold. The villagers sought new objects of desire.
As the system began to repeat itself the question arose, “Might there be a better way?”
Beadle 09192025
On a church sign in Scotland, below the minister’s name, I read Church Beagle: {name}. Church Beagle? Did the church have a mascot? Had they gone to the dogs? Was the alpha-dog bully publicly named on the sign? (In our system it might read TLG – That Little Group). It was a misread, not a misprint. The sign actually and accurately read: Church Beadle.
For Charles Dickens’ novel “Oliver Twist”, Mr. Bumble was a Beadle who ran the orphanage workhouse outside London — “tears were not the things to find their way to Mr. Bumble’s soul; his heart was waterproof.” Wow. I cry with tears, bad beadle, bad beadle, sit, stay.
During the Scottish Reformation of the 16th century, the Beadle was “the minister’s man.” He would open the church, take care of the grounds, ring the bell, etc. As Sunday worship began, the Beadle would process in with the Bible and the Psalter, escort the preacher up to the pulpit, lock the door of the pulpit steps, and sit by the door with a mace. His actions said the preacher was called to interpret the Bible whether you liked it or not. He made sure the word was proclaimed, unhindered. (He might also waken those who had fallen asleep during a long sermon.)
I wonder if the Beadle is shown below John Knox preaching at St. Giles Cathedral. Maybe he was protecting Knox’s freedom of preach as he questioned the autocratic actions of Mary Queen of Scots who ruled from Edinburgh Castle halfway up the royal mile.
In line with the Beadle, as a Presbyterian Preacher, I can’t be silenced by “That Little Group” for what I say in a sermon. It takes a vote of the congregation AND a vote of elders and pastors from a majority of congregations in the presbytery. With wisdom from a wider witness, they might act to get me the help I need, correct my errors, or protect me as I faithfully speak truth to power — especially when it’s unpopular and thus Biblically prophetic.
Who has been a Beadle in your life? Where might you see a need for Beadles today? What protections do you have to speak your truth to those who greedily abuse power?
Questioning Writings 013125
On my 21st birthday, during my cousin’s funeral, I learned it was good to disagree with those who seek to represent God. As we sang the comforting hymn “our God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come…” my aunt said, “I hate that idea; it’s not true for me or helpful at all.”
The battle-line was “time like an ever-rolling stream bears every child away; they fly forgotten as a dream dies at the opening day.” Before the closing “Amen” my aunt leaned over to say, “My daughter is not and never will be forgotten!!!!” Grieving mothers, like all God’s creatures, need to speak their truth in love.
Soon, in addition to evaluating poems, God gave me the freedom to evaluate human ideas expressed in Biblical passages. Among the many views over the millennia of expressions I would question what was true in my experience, what was helpful and life-giving, what inspired beauty, compassion, equality, love, and what best expressed God’s vision for an abundant life for this planet. Sometimes a Biblical writer’s expression of God was “not true for me or helpful at all” but most of their insights transformed my life.
As Rainer Rilke taught me: “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a foreign tongue. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” Living the questions has been helpful and true for me.
What questions do you live into without simple answers? How have you found God encouraging you to seek what is true and helpful from the writings of others? How do tyrants who don’t allow questions without retribution seem anti-Christlike to you?
Omnipotence 012525
I returned home from college for my 21st birthday. Our family spent the day burying my cousin who was senselessly killed at 24 when a speeding car ran a stop sign. That was the day I began to let go of God being omnipotent (omni=all, complete, total + potent=power, influence, effect).
How could an all-powerful and all-loving God allow my cousin to be killed? She was a devoted Christian on her way to teach aphasia stroke patients how to speak again; she had a lot to live for and a lot of empathy, compassion, joy, and love to share.
If God is an uncaring, greedy, manipulative, vindictive, authoritative tyrant then we need no further explanations. But if God is love, compassion, seeking beauty, joy and abundance for the whole creation, then something is wrong. I knew in the depths of my being that God was loving; maybe I miscalculated the all-powerful part. It was what I’d been told, but was it true? Did it fit the God of the Bible and experience?
The funeral home death march was when I first heard the 20 horrible things people say about God — rehearsed lines in funeral lines (trying to protect God’s reputation or be helpful to you, but failing at both). “God wanted her with him” (so did we); “she’s in a better place” (being here with us was good enough); “God only takes the best” (wish she’d been a little worse); “God has a plan” (well this plan sucks); “God is teaching you a lesson” (the lesson will never be worth the cost because the teacher needs a better lesson plan)…….
Nobody was being cruel — just thoughtless — mindlessly repeating what they’d heard even when it hadn’t helped them. Maybe there’s a better way; maybe we can find it together. One teaser from my friends I share with you — what if we replace omnipotence with amipotence — the power of love (Huey Lewis more than Celine Dion). Come and see.
What life experiences impacted your views about God? What answers do you seek for bad things happening to good people and good things happening to bad people? Where is one example of real love ever being controlling?
Georgia Baptist 11/13/24
In 1980 my 23rd summer was spent experiencing a semester of Clinical Pastoral Education as a student chaplain. In days of yore when hospitals were not-for-profit, many were founded by religious communities. You didn’t have to be some flavor of baptist to be a patient at Georgia Baptist Hospital in Atlanta. I could stay Presbyterian and work there, too .
I encountered people of many faiths, personalities, and backgrounds when I entered a hospital room as their chaplain. My calling was to walk their path with them – not force them onto my path. It took weeks for me to grow from “I’m just one of the student chaplains here” to “I’m your chaplain.”
It was not easy for me to enter a stranger’s room uninvited. As someone else said, “I pray every time I visit a patient — sometimes out loud.” My worst fears were realized when I walked into one man’s room saying, “Good morning, my name is Wally and I’m your chaplain.” He bellowed from his bed, “Who let you in here? I don’t want a chaplain! I’m an atheist. Get lost.”
I was so stunned I couldn’t move. Something happened that has only happened a few times in my life. My mouth started moving, but I wasn’t doing the talking. The words that came out of my mouth would never come from me alone. While my body was shaking my mouth asked, “What kind of God do you not believe in?”
The man began to tell me about the vindictive, judgmental, angry God he didn’t believe in. I said, “Wow…. I don’t believe in that God either.” After a few more exchanges, he invited me to sit down as he told me about his life and his father. We were united by a shared un-belief.
What kind of God do you not believe in? What questions are you asking? How have you experienced a spirit speaking through you in ways you didn’t anticipate or control?
Checkmate 110624 (100520)
{I wrote this on Oct. 5, 2020 for the church I served then. Recycling today…}
I’m not sure if it was 5th or 6th grade, but I remember the humiliation. I competed in my school’s chess tournament and I won each match until the finals! The championship game was played in front of our entire class. My time in the spotlight ended in four moves.
Before it barely began, it was over; 4 moves — checkmate. While my classmates were spared the boredom of a long match, I was publicly defeated. Then it got worse. A friend said, “Don’t feel so bad, Wallis. He beat everyone else like that. He learned those moves from the Encyclopedia Britannica. It’s called ‘Fool’s Mate’.” After years of playing chess, I suffered the agony of defeat at the hands of a kid who looked up “chess” in an encyclopedia — making a fool out of me.
When I later learned the correct term is “Scholar’s Mate”, I still felt foolish. Furthermore, I felt frustration that no one had warned me. Why didn’t my friends inform me about how he’d beat them? Was anyone really my friend? Why hadn’t I looked up chess instead of playing it? Why couldn’t I have lost earlier before the finals? How would I live with my public and private humiliation?
Maybe that’s one of my early calls to ministry. In this version of “Scholar’s Mate”, I study the Bible, commentaries, and the teachings of spiritual leaders more than many. I spend a lot of my time warning my friends. I am sensitive to listening for the pride and humiliation in others because of my experience. I learned life lessons from the consequences of playing childhood chess; thankfully the cost of those lessons was low.
God offers us choices and consequences in our lives. We are given the choice to learn lessons from our experience, or to ignore them. I believe God allows us to suffer the consequences of our actions, because “we not punished for our sin as much as we are punished by our sin.” Some lessons are learned when the cost of our choice is low. Some lessons are delayed until the cost is greater. Sometimes we suffer the consequences of the choices of others.
How have your past life lessons impacted your present? What are the consequences of your choices and actions teaching you today? How do you open your heart, mind, and body to what God is trying to teach you in your personal checkmate?
Could We Both Be Right? 10/23/24
Seventeen years ago when I was committed by the court to our psychiatric hospital, my psychologist sister arrived from Seattle as my first visitor. That morning I spent six hours of mania scrawling 43 pages on “Law and Gospel” which I commanded her to copy and distribute. She said, “Why don’t you trust me to do what’s best with this.” She was a check on my abuse of power.
As I returned to the floor, I told the charge nurse my sister had brought a suitcase with clean clothes. She made a phone call and said, “It’s not in the room yet. Check back later.” When I checked back, the nurse re-dialed the number and said, “There’s no suitcase in the room. Maybe you misunderstood your sister.”
After sitting in my stinking clothes for a while, I returned to the desk. “Ma’am, I know she brought a suitcase; I need clean clothes.” After dispatching an aid to investigate, the nurse explained: “If your sister had brought a suitcase, it would have been searched and placed in our storage room. It’s not there. Sit down. I need to finish these charts.”
I sat down and pondered calling her “Nurse Ratched” although she hadn’t really earned the title. How does a manic mental patient convince the charge nurse that his reality is real? I recalled that Jesus asked powerful questions in response to challenges and arguments.
Believing it was my last chance, I stood at the desk and asked as calmly as I could, “Is there any way we could both be right? In fact, while you’re charting, would you chart that I asked, you ‘Could we both be right?’” Her frustrated face changed to pondering. She dialed a different number, smiled, and said, “Your suitcase was put on the wrong floor. I’ll get it.”
I abhor the dichotomy of 2 choices in a political election every 2, 4, or 6 years. I enjoy conversations where we can share our different desires and find ways to meet our goals. I love listening to different experiences, insights, perspectives, seeking solutions. I relish both/and (not either/or) answers, where we can both be right. But here we are with the civic responsibility to make a dichotomous decision.
How do you listen to needs and desires of others in reaching solutions? When have you experienced situations where “we both are right?” When have you had to make a clear choice?
Miracles 091324
After my post “With God on Our Side” on Sept. 4, I’ve been asked if saying “God saved Trump from assassination” breaks the 3rd commandment – You shall not use God’s name in vain. Was it a miracle? I don’t know. I’m glad he wasn’t another casualty of our children whose parents arm better than combat soldiers. Trump did turn to lie about a misleading graphic as the shot only hit his ear — did it help him listen? I don’t know.
I do know this from comforting those who grieve. God doesn’t stop a bullet, grab the wheel from an impaired driver, or pull the innocent off a cross. God allows our choices and God allows us to suffer the consequences of our choices. God grieves with us even when we take no responsibility for our deeds.
I do know this from personal experience. When God acts in my life, I see a transformation; I see a change, an improvement that lasts more than a few hours. We all see hope, joy, love, peace, resurrection, compassion, justice, empathy whenever God acts in our world and lives..
I do know this from scripture. God tells Elijah: Don’t look for me in enormous earthquakes or violent winds, or consuming fires. I’m not there. Listen for me in the silence, the still small voice. (1 Kings 19).
Maybe, maybe God’s action was in the small act of our nation’s president Biden getting Covid. When Covid forced him to stop “running” and listen to the still small voice of God and advisors to focus on the remainder of his presidency and pass the mantle to Kamala Harris, was that a miracle? I don’t know. But I wonder. Do you see any signs of transformation, resurrection, hope, joy, unity, empathy, and love? That’s usually a good sign God’s involved.
When have you been transformed by God acting through your suffering beyond your control? What signs do you look for to see God at work in the world? When do you listen in silence to the still small voice of God?
Snakes on a Plane 090924
The evening of August 19, I had an interesting experience flying home on Delta airlines. There were videos on the back of each seat with headphones. Each passenger could choose to watch live TV, listen to music, see a game or many movies. Being the first night of the Democratic National Convention, I wanted to hear some speeches after watching the Republican Convention three weeks before.
I chose a channel from a news source that showed what was actually going on. Other screens I could see from other seats had Fox on. While I listened to Coach Steve Kerr talk about the Olympics, teamwork, and the attributes of a positive leader, the Fox screens only showed Hannity talking — before a screen of buildings burning while Trump was president. Then Fox showed a long-shot image of crowds at the convention while Hannity and Ingraham continued their conversation over every speaker I heard.
I wonder if commentators were telling congregants what was being said instead of “letting” you “judge for yourself” by actually listening. I wonder if it’s like pastors who tell you what the Bible says when they don’t like you to see what is in the Bible. Could showing an image of a convention hall allow Fox to say “they covered the convention”? After we landed I wondered if Fox showed US Senator Raphael Warnock’s “sermon” or Jamie Raskin’s insights to Trump’s actions in the weeks before and on the day of Jan. 6 trying to steal an election he lost.
Where do you see divisions based on differences in people’s sources of information? How do you try to overcome confirmation bias (being only comfortable with information that confirms what you already believe)? How do you burst your bubble to discover what information is true?